THE CLIMATE. 89 



was found to be 73. 5 ; that of evaporation id tin? same hour, 61. 3. At sunrise during 



Ki'vnitri'M (lays <>f l-Yhniary, !'. ''."2 ; .suiis.-t, r,r, ; ami that ,f tin- w.-t t ln-i m.-m.-t.-i fa ti,.- -.in,.- 



epochs, respectively, 47. 8 and 58. 2. On the 29th November preceding, Mr. Theodore Phil- 

 ip] ii, liy whom the journal was kept,* tried the temperature of water i n seventeen different well*, 

 and found tin- tin -i -moim -ter range from 55. 4 to 61. 7. Selecting those where the water came 

 if it tin- lfvt-1 of the earth, the lowest temperature was found in a well only nine feet deep, 

 and at a small superficial spring. On the 7th December the temperature of the well continued 

 the same ; but by the 31st January it had risen to 67. 2, and on the 28th February was 57. 

 From these results he deduces that the mean temperature of Concepcion will be between 56.4 

 ami 57. 2. There was neither storm, hail, nor earthquake from the commencement of Sep- 

 tember to the close of February, nor did any rain fall during the last month. Poeppigf 

 mentions an interesting fact respecting the influence of the easterly winds here. He says that 

 ul irii they blow in spring, they depress the thermometer in a short time from 12 to 15 ; but 

 towards the end of February, they raise it almost as much. The first he attributes to the deep 

 snow with which the Andes are covered at that season, and the second to the high temperature 

 to which the air upon the sandy plains of the Pampas of the Argentine republic is raised during 

 the summer months ; but neither of the three Philippis who have resided several years in the 

 south notices the fact. It is supposed that its climate has been undergoing a gradual change 

 ever since active destruction of the forest-trees of the vicinity commenced, and to this decrease 

 of mean heat is attributed injury to the peach-trees during some years past. Trees of the same 

 kind introduced from abroad, flourishing somewhat later, had proved less liable to blight. It 

 had also been remarked that there was a great difference in the time of maturing of fruits at 

 Tom6, on the coast, and Concepcion less than six leagues distant in a south direction. 



At Valdivia the summer temperature is 60 ; the lowest observed at 6 A. M., 41 ; the highest 

 (in January), 96. 2 ; and the mean difference between the 6 A. M. and maximum tempera- 

 tures, 18. There are, however, great differences from day to day ; and the coldness of some 

 of the nights may be judged of from the fact that there are localities of small extent where the 

 leaves of potatoes, beans, and other plants, are occasionally frosted. From the same cause, 

 almond-trees rarely mature their fruit, and there is a difference of more than two months in 

 the times of flowering of similar plants here and at Santiago. The prevailing winds are from 

 west ; after that, they are most common from S.E. and S.W. never from north, and only once 

 from west. Rain fell on twenty-eight of the ninety-one days, and twelve others were cloudy. 

 In all the year there were one hundred and fifty-six rainy and seventy cloudy days. In Wash- 

 ington the annual average number of the former is ninety. Grouping the winds with the 

 rainy days, it is found that those which blow from any point of the compass between N.E. and 

 N.W. are essentially rain winds ; those from south to east, dry winds. In winter and spring 

 the greatest numfber of rains are with N.E. winds; in summer, with west; and in autumn, 

 from the N.W. At a little distance off the coast, northerly and N.W. winds are invariably 

 accompanied by damp, disagreeable, and unsettled weather. When a change takes place, it 

 is usually to the S.W., and thence to the southward ; sometimes in a violent squall, accom- 

 panied by rain, thunder, and lightning ; at other times it draws gradually round, and as a 

 steady southerly wind approaches, the sky becomes clear and the weather healthily pleasant. 

 Though usually a prelude to a clearing-up storm s lightning is always a sign of more immediate 

 bad weather. 



The only barometrical observations known to have been published are those of Capt. Fitzroy, 

 which were made in the harbor at noon from the 9th to the 22d February, 1835. On one day, 

 (20th, when the earthquake destroyed Concepcion,) there were two other records, viz : at 6 

 A. M. and 6 P. M. The instrument was suspended at the level of the sea: its range, during thir- 

 teen days, was from 29.85 to 30.10 inches ; and the fall recorded between 6 A. M. and 6 P. M., 



* Anales de la Universidad, Marzo de 1850. 



t Poeppig. Reise in Chile, Peru, uud mil dem Auiazoueustrouie in 16,J7-'32. 



12 



